Polar flotilla flagship`s keel to be laid in St Petersburg

ST PETERSBURG, June 30 (Itar-Tass) - The keel of a new expeditionary
ship for the scientific exploration of the Arctic and Antarctica is to be
laid at a ceremony here on Tuesday at the Admiratlty Shipyards association
(which is part of the Western Shipbuilding Center of the OSK Corporation),
the oldest domestic shipbuilding enterprise.
Polar researchers, executives of shipping companies, and
representatives of the design bureaus of the shipbuilding sector and
allied industries will be present at the ceremony.
Rosgidromet (Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Monitoring of
the Environment) acts as the customer in the project to build the new
flagship of the polar research fleet. A tentative value of the project is
5,000 million roubles.
Arkady Soshnikov, chief engineer of the Arctic and Antarctic research
institute (AANII) of Rosgidromet, has told Itar-Tass, "The diesel-electric
ship of reinforced ice-breaking class is expected to be commissioned in
the autumn of 2011". The ship, he related, has been devised at the
Baltsudproject central design bureau which is a branch of the Central
Research Institute named after Academician Krylov.
"Due to innovative technical solutions, the successor to the previous
flagship, the Akademik Fyodorov, will excel its predecessor in
performance," an AANII official maintains.
The Akademik Fyodorov diesel electric ship of reinforced ice-breaking
class was built at a shipyard in Finland in 1987. Following an overhaul
and replacement of key equipment, the service length of the ship was
prolonged for ten years, the AANII official pointed out.
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